Session M1A 1-4244-0257-3/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE October 28 – 31, 2006, San Diego, CA 36 th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference M1A-1 Special Session - Incorporating Values: A User- Oriented Approach to Curriculum Design Mark Somerville, John Geddes, Benjamin Linder, Ozgur Eris and Jonathan Stolk Olin College, Olin Way, Needham MA 02492 mark.somerville@olin.edu Abstract – Curriculum development efforts often focus on delineating content within associated constraints: “How can I/we best design a course to cover a set of topics in the time available?” Such an approach is clearly productive, but it can easily lose sight of the people involved and their values. In this interactive session we will explore the importance of being explicit about the people participating in learning experiences. We will do this by introducing the use of user-oriented design techniques in curriculum design, and by involving participants in aspects of these techniques. Index Terms – Curricular design, user-oriented design, student-centered, values INTRODUCTION Engineering educators who wish to develop curricula are fundamentally engaged in a design activity. However, as has been previously observed, engineering educators often fail to apply their own training in design processes to curriculum development [1]. This happens for a variety of reasons. First, curriculum design tends to be highly operational – as instructors, we operate under significant time pressures. Second, in many cases, curriculum design is conducted at the individual level, reducing both the need and the pressure to employ design methodologies. Finally, as educators, we often believe we know the answer before we begin – engineering educators have typically thrived in traditional educational settings, and so the natural working assumption for the individual is often, “what worked for me…” As a result of these pressures, formal design processes are rarely employed, and design iteration occurs from semester to semester (“This didn’t work last time, maybe next time I’ll…”). When educators do employ design methodologies, the approach is often highly focused on the design object e.g., the course, the organization of content covered by the course, or the nature of the experiences within the course. For example, design of integrated experiences often start with identification of the subject matter that must be covered in the course, and the curricular design revolves around how to organize that subject matter, what experiences will best allow learners to attain command of the subject matter, and how this attainment will be assessed [1]. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the recent review of the publication record in the Journal for Engineering Education [2]. Part of the design process must, of course, deal with such focused, concrete questions (“What goes in the course?” “How is this course responsive to different learning styles?” “What learning outcomes do I hope to achieve?”). However, at times, such analytical approaches can obscure the need for empathy in the curriculum design process. Fundamentally, one designs curricula for people [3]. The product of a curricular design activity must not only meet constraints imposed by resource limitations and content requirements; it must also be responsive to the values, attitudes, and needs of the “users” (both students and instructors). Educators are intuitively aware of this, but do not always formally acknowledge it in their practice. In this session, we will explicitly explore curricular design from a user-oriented perspective, which begins not with the design constraints and the desired outcomes, but with the students and the instructors. Identifying user needs is an important part of user- oriented design. However, sole attention to needs can still permit operational, object-oriented thinking to dominate. Therefore, we emphasize addressing user values in an effort to promote more holistic, strategic thinking. We believe this change in emphasis can help educators shift away from “rearranging the boxes” of curricula to making more dramatic change. Of course, these distinctions hinge on one’s working definitions of values and needs, which we will establish at the beginning of the session. GOALS OF THE SESSION Our broad goals are to expose educators to user-oriented design thinking and to encourage them to explicitly incorporate it into their curriculum design efforts. Our goals for the session are 1) to introduce participants to a student- centered approach to designing curricular components that takes values into account, 2) to practice identifying student values and analyzing curricular components through techniques such as persona creation, and 3) to begin to make explicit the collective values that currently shape curriculum efforts so as to make future curriculum development more intentional with regard to values. SESSION CONTENT AND AGENDA This session will include a brief introduction, followed by several distinct activity periods. The introduction will provide participants with an overview of user-oriented design processes as applied to product design and as applied to curriculum design. This introduction will familiarize the audience with the broader context and background of the techniques used later in the session.